New member, familiar car

[SSChef]

With the rear clear we can start cutting the front so we can fit the 18x10 275's which i'm told is not possible. There is a bunch of body panels in the way. If its hitting, move it till it stops hitting. Then go a little further.

Torque box left and right. Cut!

Battery tray bulge. Cut!

Steering box bulge. Cut!

Frame rail pinch. cut!

Wheels are in. He says that was the easy part.

Trial fitting the wheels and tires exposed a few more spots to cut out. The front fender lip, that needs to go. He has a trick to cut them out and replace them with 3/16" cold rolled steel for reinforcement to maintain the fender shape. Looks like he will add a slight bulge to it since we may need it.

[SSChef]

On the rear, when the suspension let loose the tire went into the front of the quarter and buckled it up pretty bad. We found out that the section is full of rust.

We may do a reshape to gain more tire clearance but we won't know till we get the full suspension in and travel tested. He wants to move the wheel rearward with longer links before that happens.

He will be reshaping the rear arch to give us a fluid tire space. The factory quarter starts tight, comes out then comes back in tight. Its almost a 2" difference.

[Try2paz]

cool car, love the Falcons! I saw the car when i stopped by that shop. It's beautiful! Any thoughts on doing some road course days?

[WILWAXU]

Great car! Love the updates.

[rustomatic]

Thanks for being brave. This car deserves to be made right; by that, I mean fully functional. It's always such a pain to see how people address paint and cosmetics before addressing full-force functionality. It's good to see that you were at least not injured . . .

It's hard to believe that someone expected that wishbone thing to address lateral movement, especially with the force of those huge tires. It's also important to be suspect of suspension linkage that is wrapped with Dynamat. Every time we buy one of these things, there's always a new set of not-so-funny problems to address. I'm sure Ron Sutton has a million good ways to securely locate the quick change rear.

Here's to seeing this car in action some day!

[SSChef]

Originally Posted by rustomatic

Thanks for being brave. This car deserves to be made right; by that, I mean fully functional. It's always such a pain to see how people address paint and cosmetics before addressing full-force functionality. It's good to see that you were at least not injured . . .

It's hard to believe that someone expected that wishbone thing to address lateral movement, especially with the force of those huge tires. It's also important to be suspect of suspension linkage that is wrapped with Dynamat. Every time we buy one of these things, there's always a new set of not-so-funny problems to address. I'm sure Ron Sutton has a million good ways to securely locate the quick change rear.

Here's to seeing this car in action some day!

If it had happened 5 min earlier it would have been very bad. It reminded me of the blues brothers, go through hell and the car falls apart a few seconds after they park it.

The car handled as my mechanic described as a "fat girl on a skate board". Another problem he diagnosed for me was a very strange vibration over 50 MPH, he believes the past techs were trying to get rid of it by adding weight and dampening. Dyna mat all over the links and driveshaft. He found the transmission was tail down close to 5 degrees. The rear was also down 3 degrees. He said in order to fix that the trans tunnel and cross member will have to be redone to give us the proper drive train alignment. His goal is 0 degrees on the trans and -2 on the rear end. Then adjust from there.
The car also rode very hard. VERY!!
We found 800 LBS springs in front and 500 LBS out back. Going to switch to 550 front and 200 rear. He will reduce the rear shock angles to do this.

Funny you mention Ron, he supplied a lot of the parts we used.

There was talk about doing a 3 link but we ended up with a parallel 4 bar with a frame mounted watts link. He has done a few of these with great success and its explained that its better on a 70% street, 10% auto X and 20% cars and coffee car.

Using Ridetech brackets, Ridetech coil overs, Spohn's narrow spherical's rod ends, Ron Sutton watts components, grade 8- 3/4"/ 5/8" hardware, All star performance links, QAI tube adapters and 1 1/4" .120 wall tubing and 3/16" custom brackets throughout.

I didn't like the gear noise coming out of the Williams rear so we are going with a Moser 9 housing custom fit along with 33 spline axles and true track 4:11 N center. Should be fine and quieter for me.


here is the preliminary fitting. He ended up putting in another pair of parallel 2x3 .120 runners to mount the lower links 2" out on each side to make the links sit out wider. This will put the coil overs closer to the tires. not sure why he wanted to do it but I am trusting his actions. He added a few details to sit lower if I go air-ride in the future.

Now that he has his info he can sit on his computer and go over his 4 link calculator.

[SSChef]

Going back to suspension choice and design.
Ron Sutton is a great resource and a bucket full on knowledge. You guys are lucky to have him in your community.

The shop already had a proven set up but did some tweaks based on Rons thread. This helped us gain a nice range anti squat % and the right roll range. It allowed us to reduce the spring rate and not have to rely on a rear roll bar. All together make a smoother and greater handling car in all areas.

Thanks Ron!!!

[WSSix]

Welcome to the site, Chef. Sounds like you've got some great plans with the Falcon. Glad that the prior incident wasn't more serious.

Also, I'm not sure measuring across the lower rib on the T56 is accurate. That measurement is typically taken on the rear seal surface or the tail shaft sticking out the back of the trans. I'm sure they'll get it right though.

Good luck with the build! Keep us updated.

[Josh@Ridetech]

Beautiful car!

[SSChef]

Originally Posted by WILWAXU

Great car! Love the updates.

thanks, its a body that is not customized much.